La Torreta de Castielfabib, ¿una torre defensiva hexagonal tardomedieval?

Abstract

[EN] Medieval fortifications placed in the inner part of the Valencian Country or even around its borders, are usually designed with simple shapes such as squares, rectangles or circles. Polygonal shapes appeared as well when it comes to the main towers of some fortresses like Puertomingalvo or Zafra, both close to the Aragon frontiers. The remains of the tower called “la Torreta” in Castielfabib (Valencia) remind us the pentagonal buildings quoted before, but according to the engraving made by Manfredo Fanti in 1840 this tower had an hexagonal design. Since no archaeological intervention has been done yet to clarify this issue, factors like: the lack of coherence between the present remains of the building and the only graphical information we have, the rarity of hexagonal shapes during the XIV-XV and the scarce of space to place certain geometrical figures, should be studied to move forward on this field.